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Abstract
Long criticized, pluriactivity is now perceived as an alternative agricultural strategy and it is becoming a subject of support policies in certain territories. But having an off-farm professional activity can generate significant work overload and organisational problems that might be complicated to manage in the long term. This study focuses on pluriactivity as a dynamic strategy that evolves over time due to family circumstances and job opportunities. We differentiate the initial project of pluriactivity and the strategies farmers use in order to manage overwork. We use an original qualitative approach and 28 interviews of pluriactive farmers in “Nord Pas de Calais” (NPdC), region located in northern France. We find that even if the main motivations of pluriactivity are patrimonial and economic, the initial projects of pluriactivity vary a lot, for some farmers pluriactivity is a patrimonial investment or passion for farming project but for others pluriactivity is intended to be a short-run strategy until the farms gets bigger and more profitable. Then farmers develop different strategies that lead to develop the farm or they reduce farm activities because they cannot give more time to the farm.